Combustible Dust Vacuums Save Lives and PropertyImplementing a housekeeping routine to mitigate combustible dust minimizes explosion risk.
By David Kennedy / May 01, 2015
According to a 2012 report by the NFPA, there were an estimated 8,600 structural fires reported to U.S. fire departments each year at industrial or manufacturing properties between 2006 and 2010.

Dust, fiber, or lint (including sawdust) accounted for 12 percent of the items first ignited, just behind flammable or combustible liquids and gases, which topped the list at 13 percent. When fugitive dust is unchecked, these fires can quickly escalate into catastrophic secondary dust explosions, causing devastating injury, death, and property damage.

Shocking cases like the Imperial Sugar dust explosion that injured 42 and killed 14 and the Kunshan Zhongrong Metal Products explosion in China last August that killed 146 people stand out most in the public eye, but there have been 57 com…

Though NFPA had previously developed several standards addressing combustible dust, those standards were more industry or commodity specific and have often contained different, and sometimes conflicting, requirements. NFPA 652 will consolidate the basic requirements among the
existing dust standards and will apply to all industries that are exposed to combustible dust hazards. It will help overcome problems in following the current combustible dust standards by providing guidance to identify and manage fire and explosion hazards caused by combustible dusts. It will also direct users to the combustible dust standards that are specific to their industry or commodity.